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Chapter 8: Multimedia Skills

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Overview

• Members of a multimedia team

• Roles and responsibilities in a multimedia team

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Members of a Multimedia Team

• A team of skilled individuals is required to create a good multimedia project.

• Team building refers to activities that help a group and its members function at optimal levels.

• The diverse range of skills required for a project is called the multimedia skillset.

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Members of a Multimedia Team (continued)

• A multimedia team consists of the following:

– Project manager

– Multimedia designer

– Interface designer

– Writer

– Video specialist

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• A multimedia team consists of the following (continued):

– Audio specialist

– Multimedia programmer

– Producer for the Web

– Computer programmers

Members of a Multimedia Team (continued)

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Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team

• The project manager is responsible for:

– The overall development, implementation, and day-to-day operations of the project

– The design and management of a project

– Understanding the strengths and limitations of hardware and software

– Ensuring people skills and organizational skills

– Conveying information between the team and the client

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Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

Project Manager

Mark Williams

Production of a CD-ROM reference guide at Microsoft involved a core team headed by project manager Mark Williams, along with additional specialists, technicians, and assistants, who were brought on board as needed.

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Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

• Multimedia designer – This team consists of:

– Graphics designers, illustrators, animators, and image processing specialists who deal withvisuals, thereby making the project appealing and aesthetic

– Instructional designers, who make sure that thesubject matter is presented clearly for the targetaudience

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• Multimedia designer - This team consists of (continued):

– Interface designers, who devise the navigationalpathways and content maps

– Information designers, who structure content,determine user pathways and feedback, and selectpresentation media

Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

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MultimediaDesigner

Kurt Andersen

Kurt Andersen is an instructional designer and was a senior designer at the George Lucas Educational Foundation, where he designed multimedia prototypes for middleschool math and science curricula.

Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

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• An interface designer is responsible for:

– Creating a software device that organizes content,allows users to access or modify content, andpresents that content on the screen

– Building a user-friendly interface

Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

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InterfaceDesigner

Nicole Lazzaro

Nicole Lazzaro is an award-winninginterface designer with XEODesign inOakland, California, and teaches interface design at San Francisco State University’s Multimedia Studies Program. She spends her days thinking of new ways to designmultimedia interfaces that feel more like real life.

Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

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• A multimedia writer is responsible for:

– Creating characters, actions, point of view, and interactivity

– Writing proposals and test screens

– Scripting voice-overs and actors' narrations

Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

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Writer

Domenic Stansberry

Domenic Stansberry is a writer/designer who has worked on interactive multimedia dramas for commercial products. He has also written for documentary film andpublished two books of fiction.

Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

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• A video specialist needs to understand:

– The delivery of video files on DVD, or the Web

– How to shoot quality video

– How to transfer the video footage to a computer

– How to edit the footage down to a final productusing a digital nonlinear editing system (NLE)

Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

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Video Specialist

Oliver Streuli

Oliver Streuli has worked as a post-production editor on several Hollywood productions (Silence of the Lambs, Family Man, and Rush Hour 2). He currently works in Switzerland, where he specializes in post-production of commercials, corporate marketing and educational videos, and broadcast programming.

Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

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• An audio specialist is responsible for:

– Locating and selecting suitable music talent

– Scheduling recording sessions

– Digitizing and editing recorded material intocomputer files

Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

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Audio Specialist

Chip Harris

Chip Harris studied trumpet and electronic music composition at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and he has worked with the noted composer Jean Eichelberger Ivy. He has recorded releases on major and independent labels, including Atlantic, RCA, and Warner Brothers; has composed music for CD-ROM titles for Virgin Games, Accolade, and E-greetings; and has created soundtracks for Clio and Joeyaward-winning spots.

Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

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• A multimedia programmer, also called a software engineer:

– Integrates all the multimedia elements into aseamless project, using authoring systems ora programming language.

– Writes codes for the display of multimediaelements, and to control various peripheraldevices.

– Manages timings, transitions, and record keeping.

Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

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MultimediaProgrammer

Hal Wine

Hal Wine is a programmer familiar with both the Windows and Macintosh environments. In his many years of experience, he has worked in most of the important areas of computing and for many of the leading computing companies.

Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

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• Multimedia producer for the Web:

– Web site producers put together a coordinated setof pages for the Web.

– They also co-ordinate updates and changes.

Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

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Producer

Kevin Edwards

Kevin Edwards is Senior MultimediaProducer for CNET, a publicly tradedmedia company that integrates television programming with a network of sites on the World Wide Web.

Roles and Responsibilities in a Multimedia Team (continued)

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Summary

• The diverse skills required to create amultimedia project are called the multimedia skill set.

• Team building refers to activities that help agroup and its members function at optimallevels of performance.

• Roles and responsibilities are assigned toeach team member in a multimedia project.